A proud unapologetic Black trans woman speaking truth to power and discussing the world around her since 2006
Brittney Griner scored 27 points, grabbed sever rebounds and blocked ten shots to help the Baylor Lady Bears beat Number one seeded Tennessee 77-62 and advance to the Elite 8 round of the Womens NCAA tournament for only the second time in school history.
I'm going to show the women b-ballers some love as always and continue a TransGriot tradition for the third consecutive year in selecting an NCAA women's tournament bracket. 
Final Four Teams
The back to back world champion and number one ranked Team USA played their first game in this 2010 women's Olympic hockey tournament versus China.
The opening ceremonies are over, the Olympic flame has made it to its dual cauldrons in BC Place and downtown Vancouver and the competition is now underway.
If Team Canada rings up double digit goals to Sweden, the defending Torino silver medalists, then that's a cause for concern. 
The back to back world champions and number one ranked Team USA women make their Vancouver hockey debut versus China in Group A play. 
Now y'all know I wasn't going to talk about the USA 'Menz' basketball team and the upcoming FIBA World Championships in Turkey without talking about the women's tournament since it's taking place this year as well. 
For now FIBA is keeping the women's tourney at 16 teams. One automatic qualifying slot slot went to the 2008 Olympic Champion USA, the other to the host Czechs. The other 14 teams qualified through their various FIBA regional zone tournaments.
Group E based in Ostrava will be comprised of the six survivors from Groups A and B, while Group F based in Brno will be comprised of the six Group C and D survivors. They will play another round of games to determine the top four teams in those reconstituted groups. 
Team USA was unbeaten and cruising to another basketball confrontation with the Aussies until the Russians upset Team USA 75-68 in the semifinals and ended their chance at a FIBA World Championship threepeat. 
The final USA women's team lineup hasn't been set yet, but we already know it will be a team in transition with longtime center Lisa Leslie retiring from international competition after the Beijing Games.
Today is the 102nd anniversary of the founding of the first African American sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.
I talked about my Houston homegirl Brittney Griner becoming the ninth woman to dunk in NCAA women's competition a month ago.
Wells-Blackwell's dunk was such a big deal back in 1984 that she appeared on network television, in an issue of Sports Illustrated, was honored at a luncheon in New York, had a display put up in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, another one in the Women’s College Basketball Hall of Fame and was given the honor of being inducted in the University of Houston’s Phi Slamma Jamma dunking fraternity.
It was only a matter of time before Baylor's 6 foot 8 freshman phenom b-baller Brittney Griner threw down a dunk in NCAA competition, especially in light of the fact she dunked 52 times at Aldine Nimitz.
Well, well, well. We were expecting some serious drama and fireworks at this session of the International Association of Athletics Federations, the world governing body for what we call track and field in the States.
The IAAF, the South African Ministry of Sport and Recreation and Caster Semenya’s representatives have been and still are in discussions with a view to resolving the issues surrounding Caster Semenya’s participation in Athletics.
The South African Sports Ministry in a statement posted on its website stated that the International Association of Athletics Federations has agreed to allow the 18-year-old Semenya to keep her prize money. 
Back on September 12, the IAAF released this press statement concerning the Caster Semenya case.The IAAF has noted statements in recent media articles regarding the athlete Caster Semenya of South Africa.
We would like to emphasize that these should not be considered as official statements by the IAAF.
We can officially confirm that gender verification test results will be examined by a group of medical experts. NO decision on the case will be communicated until the IAAF has had the opportunity to complete this examination. We do not expect to make a final decision on this case before the next meeting of the IAAF Council which takes place in Monaco on November 20-21.
Please note that there will be no further comments from the IAAF on Caster Semenya until that time.
I've talked about my 6 foot 8 Houston homegirl Brittney Griner a few times on this blog and her mad b-ball skills.
It's becoming a recurring theme lately for the Williams sisters. Little Sis beats Big Sis. 
"It was the end of the season, so I have no complaints," Venus said when questioned about her fitness level. "You have to show up and play no matter what. So that had nothing to do with it."
This time it's for the title.
The Williams sisters were placed in the same Maroon group and faced each other in round robin play Wednesday. Little Sis had to work to beat Big Sis, 5-7 6-4 7-6(4) and raise her all time record against Venus to 12-10.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference has a historic and symbiotic connection to the African- American civil rights movement. 
This morning the SCLC announced the results of their October 29 presidential election. For the first time in SCLC history they will be led by a woman and she has accepted the position. 
For starters, she's a minister and elder at New Birth Baptist Church in Lithonia, GA, the 25,000 member predominately African-American megachurch run by Bishop Eddie Long. “I know deep down in my sanctified soul that my father (Dr. King) did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage.”
For too long, our nation has tolerated the insidious form of discrimination against this group of Americans, who have worked as hard as any other group, paid their taxes like everyone else, and yet have been denied equal protection under the law.... I believe that freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience.
My husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' On another occasion he said, 'I have worked too long and hard against segregated public accommodations to end up segregating my moral concern. Justice is indivisible.' Like Martin, I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others. The great promise of American democracy is that no group of people will be forced to suffer discrimination and injustice."
The Rev. Eric Lee, the Los Angeles SCLC chapter president that the previous leadership tried to force out because of his support for marriage equality in California, said in a statement that he hopes King will follow her parents' example with respect to the rights of lesbians, gays and transgender people."We know that her mother, Coretta Scott King, was supportive of LGBT equality, and we believe that Dr. King would have been as well," Lee said. "My hope is that her election is a sign that SCLC is returning to its spirit of equality for all people."
I want to see if the Rev Dr. Bernice King is going to live up to her father and mother's legacy and take the SCLC in a different, more positive direction for the 21st century.
For the first time since 2002 the final world tennis rankings will reflect what the whole planet already knows: 
Unfortunately defending champ Big Sis lost her Maroon group match to Elena Dementieva 6-3, 6-7, 2-6. The win gives Dementieva a share of the Maroon Group lead with Little Sis.
The Olympic flame lighting ceremony for the 2010 Vancouver Games will happen tomorrow while we're sleeping at 2 AM on this side of the Pond in Olympia, Greece. 
The ceremony also involves a young boy who cuts off an olive branch and gives it to the high priestess as a symbolical gesture.
Who gets to light the Olympic cauldron will be kept a secret until that day. But the honor usually goes to a high profile athlete of the Olympic host nation. 
She's been bragging (and rightfully so) about her two time (2002-2006) Olympic champion Canadian women's hockey team. The Canadian women along with the USA women have been the dominant teams in the sport while everyone else in the world has been trying to rise to the elite hockey skill levels of the Americans and Canadians. 
But when hockey was added to the winter Olympic women's sports program for the 1998 Nagano Games, Team USA flipped the script and upset the highly favored Canadians 7-4 in pool play. They then proved it wasn't a fluke by beating the then four time world champs again 3-1 in the gold medal match to skate back to the States with the first ever Olympic gold medal awarded in women's hockey.
Renee has not let me forget and rubs it in at regular intervals that the Canadian women avenged their 1998 Nagano loss by snagging their first Olympic gold medal on US soil. 
The Team USA women are determined to improve on that 2006 Olympic bronze medal finish, beat their Canadian rivals and return to women's Olympic ice hockey supremacy. Nothing would be sweeter for Team USA than to do so while avenging our 2002 Olympic home ice loss and doing unto Team Canada in 2010 what was done unto us in 2002.
But they know it won't be easy. Team USA won the IHF Women's World Hockey Championships last year in Harbin, China by beating Canada 4-3. They defended their IHF title in Hameenlinna, Finland back in April by beating down Canada 4-1 in the final.
The other nations in this upcoming Olympic tournament are determined to prove that they can not only play with but beat the two best teams in the hockey world in Team Canada and Team USA. 
Canada will be competing in Group A with 2006 Olympic silver medalists Sweden, Slovakia and Switzerland. The 2006 Olympic bronze medalists and two time reigning world champs will be in Group B with Finland, Russia and China. 
Brittney Griner's birthday doesn't arrive until October 18, but she's already received an early birthday gift courtesy of the Big 12 women's basketball coaches. 
The 2009 WNBA Finals concluded Friday night with the Phoenix Mercury beating the Indiana Fever 94-86 in the decisive Game 5 to take their second WNBA championship in three years.
I was in a sold out Compaq Center to watch the 1997, 1999 and 2000 seasons end in championship glory for the hometown girls. I flew to LA and NY to watch Comet road games and talk trash to the Sparks and Liberty fans in the Forum and Madison Square Garden. After I moved to Da Ville I drove 1.5 hours to Indianapolis four times to watch the Comets play the Indiana Fever.
For the first time since the WNBA started in 1997, we didn't have the Comets around. For those of us in the Sea of Red whose Houston summers revolved around our beloved team, memories of the dynasty and the friendships we made with our fellow season ticket holders, it was a long, hot and joyless one.
